Suomen Kuvalehti: The Finnish government’s hardline immigration stance is not the standard in other European countries

Finally, some Finnish media, like Suomen Kuvalehti, is investigating the abuses and lies of the government against Iraqi asylum seekers. As Migrant Tales has pointed out previously, there are many scoops ready to be reported if only the media cared to look closer and write about them.

When the media doesn’t question or permits the government to get away with a lie you allow the tale to grow.

The Suomen Kuvalehti story is a positive example of how the media is telling the government to stop spreading half-truths and lies about its immigration policy. Don’t do that because we’ll investigate and publish what really happens.

On Sunday, we saw Helsingin Sanomat publish an investigative piece about problems at the Finnish Immigration Service.

One of the excuses that the government of Prime Minister Juha Sipilä has used to justify its draconian line on immigration policy is that “the same happens elsewhere in Europe.”

Nonsense and doubletalk.

Xenophobic parties like the Perussuomalaiset* are quick to criticize EU encroachment in Finland’s affairs but are more than happy to cherry pick the hardline immigration policies of countries like Denmark.

According to Suomen Kuvalehti, 64% of Iraqis got asylum in Europe last year while in Finland the corresponding figure was 26%.

In the beginning of the year, 44% of Iraqis got a positive decision from the Finnish Immigration Service. That plummeted to 14% during the months of June, July, and August.

Finland isn’t following the example of other European countries in its hardline stance against Iraqi asylum seekers but its own cold-hearted view based on its prejudices and closet bigotry.

Remember when Prime Minister Sipilä promised his home to refugees in September to backtrack and break his promise a few months later?

How disingenuous of him and then to point out that his hometown of Kempele isn’t a safe place for asylum seekers.

A government that allows xenophobia to overwhelm it and panics, as a result, is surely a government that brings misery and disaster to Finland.

The fact that so many Iraqi asylum seekers came to Finland last year places pressure on the government to change its ineffective integration policies, which are meant to pacify migrants and multicultural Finns instead of doing something about prejudice and discrimination in our society.

One of the worst matters about the Finnish integration scheme is that it on paper it has noble goals but in practice underestimates and belittles migrants and minorities.

Disagree?

Why, then, do you find mostly visible migrants working for cleaning companies? Why do all the menial low-paying jobs go to certain migrant groups?

The answer is simple: It’s discrimination based on bigotry, prejudice, and racism.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We, therefore, prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings. The direct translation of “Perussuomalaiset” is “basic” or “fundamental Finn.”